Freeway crash that killed two drivers called suicide

SAN MARCOS  One of two drivers who died in a head-on collision Monday committed suicide by heading the wrong way on the freeway in San Marcos, authorities said Tuesday.

The incident on state Route 78 killed Maria Guadalupe Vargas Lopez, 38, of Escondido, a single mother who was delivering newspapers for U-T San Diego.

The Medical Examiner’s Office identified the wrong-way driver as Yi Liu, 48, of San Marcos. Investigators said she had suffered from depression, and determined her death to be a suicide.

Liu was driving a Nissan Maxima west in eastbound lanes near San Marcos Boulevard about 3 a.m. when she crashed into a PT Cruiser driven by Vargas.

Vargas was an independent contractor who had just picked up her load of newspapers at a distribution center in San Marcos. She had previously delivered papers for the North County Times before it was acquired by the U-T, a newspaper official said.